Geometric Bubble Activity

Kids love blowing bubbles so learning, while you play, doesn’t get any better with this easy to set up geometric bubble STEM activity. Awesome summer STEM with easy-going activity kids already love. Explore surface tension while you blow bubbles! Make your own homemade bubble solution too! There’s nothing better than fun science at any time of the year.

CAN BUBBLES BE DIFFERENT SHAPES?

BLOWING BUBBLES

I love how playful science can be for young kids without even going into depth with the science concepts involved. Bubble blowing is a fun example of chemistry! Bubbles are a wondrous thing for kids. Chasing after them, blowing them, watching the light reflect a rainbow of colors…

I think it’s awesome that we can share simple science with kids with ordinary, everyday materials. This special geometric bubbles activity combines a bit of math, engineering, and science as well. Build your own geometric bubble wands and explore geometric bubble shapes.

Check out how easy STEM can be with young kids! We have plenty more playful science activities to try with your junior scientists. I love how simple science can spark curiosity and experimentation. Kids always have so many questions and love to think of neat solutions.

CHEMISTRY FOR KIDS

What is chemistry? Let’s keep it basic for our younger or junior scientists! Chemistry is all about the way different materials are put together, and how they are made up including atoms and molecules. It’s also how these materials act under different conditions. Chemistry is often a base for physics so you will see overlap!

What might you experiment within chemistry? Classically we think of a mad scientist and lots of bubbling beakers, and yes there is a reaction between bases and acids to enjoy! Also, chemistry involves matter, changes, solutions, and the list goes on and on.

We will be exploring simple chemistry you can do at home or in the classroom that isn’t too crazy, but it is still lots of fun for kids! You can check out some more chemistry activities here.

GEOMETRIC BUBBLE ACTIVITY

A few quick supplies and you are good to go. You can use a pre-made bubble solution or you can make your own homemade bubble solution. The recipe is below!

YOU WILL NEED

Pipe cleaners

Bubble solution

Shallow Pan

HOMEMADE BUBBLE SOLUTION

1/2 cup of Light Corn Syrup

1 cup of Dawn Dish Soap

3 cups of water

Mix your ingredients together in a jar or plastic container and you are ready to use.

HOW TO MAKE BUBBLE SHAPES

Can you blow geometric shape bubbles? Let’s find out!

Use your pipe cleaners to form different shapes from bubbles. You can either make your shapes 2D or 3D.

Bubbles will come out round no matter what shape the wand is.

Ask your kids if they think the bubbles will all come out the same shape or if they think they will come out different shapes. Most young kids will say that the bubbles will come out in the same shape as the bubble wand.

Science with young kids is all about asking questions! Encourage questions, exploration, and self-discovery!

Invite the kids to experiment with the homemade bubble wands and let them explore the bubbles. The kids will quickly come to realize that there is only one shape of a bubble.

CAN BUBBLES BE DIFFERENT SHAPES?

Did you find that your bubbles always ended up being blown into a sphere shape? Why is that? It’s all due to surface tension.

A bubble is formed when air gets trapped inside the bubble solution. The air tries to push its way out of the bubble, but the liquid in the bubble solution wants to have the least amount of surface area, due to the clinging properties of liquid molecules.

Water molecules prefer bonding with other water molecules, which is why water gathers in drops instead of just spreading out.

A sphere is the least amount of surface area for the volume of what is contained inside the sphere (in this case, air). So bubbles will always form circles no matter the shape of the bubble wand.